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  • netbook alternate installation/update

    - by Dustin
    Ok I have an Asipre One D255E netbook. Installed 9.10 sucessfully, however no internet connections to upgrade to 10.04 or 10.10. have 10.10 alternate (couldnt get 10.04). However it says that no cd-rom present (netbook via live usb), and i direct it to sdb1 but that does not work. could someone guide me to the steps to installation via alternate ubs only (& no internet). the live usb's of 10.04 & 10.10 internet connections worked, but installation hanged (non alternate). Thank you greatly in advance.

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  • usb devices unacessible

    - by Dustin
    I have a funny thing happening with my USB devices. They are detected and show up as they should but I cannot write to them, I can read the files in them. I cannot change the Group folder access. It keeps reverting to none when I try change it. However when I start a guest session and copy a screen shot to the USB I can, but cannot in my regular administration session. Why cannot I change the option and why does it behave properly in a guest session but not normally? Anyone know how to help me out here? I am using Ubuntu 12.04, 32-bit.

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  • Software bug/defect classification

    - by Dustin K
    We're trying to come up with terms that better describe our bugs/defects. To us, the term 'bug' or 'defect' is too generic and doesn't accurately reflect what is happening. For example, instead of saying that there is a bug (in the general sense), we'd rather say what type of bug (an error, or enhancement, or improvement, etc.). What names do you use for describing 'bugs'? I found http://www.softwaredevelopment.ca/bugs.shtml which has some pretty good classifications. How do you classify them?

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  • LibreOffice and HUD

    - by Dustin
    So I have tried out a couple daily builds and beta 1, and love HUD. However, currently LibreOffice does not play nice with HUD and I was wondering if there was a way to make it work with HUD. Kinda like the lo-menubar that applies the menu bar to the global menu, if there was means to get LibreOffice to work with HUD. Or might this question be too soon for an answer? Thank you for your time and answers.

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  • Upgrade without internet & CD

    - by Dustin
    Ok I have an Acer Aspire One D255E netbook. Ubuntu 10.04 & 10.10 hangs on install from USB for both, so could not install them. However Ubuntu 9.10 worked and installed. Then I figured I would just connect to the internet and update. However, the internet does not work (doesnt show up in notification), but it worked when 10.04 & 10.10 where used as a live usb. Now is there a way to update just using 10.04-desktop iso from a USB or just somewhere in 9.10 say documents folder? Thank you for any help

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  • Boot path not found, cannot start OS

    - by Dustin
    My desktop is 12.04 64bit, and it cannot boot from the hard drive anymore. When I attempt to it just is stuck on a blank screen with an blinking dash, and nothing happens. I checked with the bios trouble shoot for problems and it said that no boot path could be found. I do not know why this is happening, but need to fix it because it used to boot up normally. What I need to know is how to fix it. I can boot into a live DVD. Also, there were a few boots I would attempt to boot into a live USB, then it would boot to the hard drive, but that does not work any more. So with the live DVD (it is an 10.04 LTS 32bit), is there any means to correct the boot path from the live DVD? Thank you for your time and answers.

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  • Ethernet on an Acer Aspire One D255E not working

    - by Dustin
    Ok very frustrated here, but hopefully can find an answer here. I have an Acer Aspire One netbook D255E. I installed 10.04 desktop edition via live USB, only to find out ethernet is not connecting. The thing is, I had installed previously 10.04 thru wubi as 30GB, but wanted more so did this install. With the Wubi install it worked great internet worked added LibO, mint menu ect. So I know it could work, and it works on Win 7(what little GB is left). I have ethernet enabled, and gave myself all permissions, but still not working. Thank you for any help, and if you do more details in the steps i need to take the better :).

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  • Why does 12.04 freeze when using multiple desktops?

    - by Dustin
    I am using 12.04 32-bit, upgraded from 11.10. Within the last week and a half Unity has hung on me with no option but a hard reboot, which I hate. It usually happens when I am using multiple desktops and applications and switching desktops. The screen just hangs, sometimes broken between desktops and applications, I can move my mouse but cannot click on anything. alt+f2 , HUD , super+w/s/d and alt+tab/~ does nothing, they do not activate. I let it rest for 15-20 minutes in hopes it will sort itself out but nothing. I'd hate to move to Unity 2D, but I can't risk having to do hard reboots/shutdowns, or moving to a different DE. Other information: the only PPA's I have added recently would be the word lens. 2.8GB RAM processor : 0 vendor_id : AuthenticAMD cpu family : 15 model : 127 model name : AMD Sempron(tm) Processor LE-1250 stepping : 2 microcode : 0x83 cpu MHz : 1000.000

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  • How do I completly remove software? [closed]

    - by Dustin
    Possible Duplicate: Why are the hidden settings-folders not deleted when purging an application? Ok I have 8GB on my desktop dual booting win 7. I installed a few games, assualtcube, tremolous, and spring. But I had removed them using 'remove --purge' and only to find they are still lingering and purge does not well truly purge them. I need them completely gone and not secretly hogging space when I purged them. How can i completely remove software, like it is gone and not going to take any more of my precious space? Shrinking 7 and growing Ubuntu is not an answer I am accepting, i want to know how to completely remove software. Thank you for your time and your answers.

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  • Software bug/defect classification

    - by Dustin K
    We're trying to come up with terms that better describe our bugs/defects. To us, the term 'bug' or 'defect' is too generic and doesn't accurately reflect what is happening. For example, instead of saying that there is a bug (in the general sense), we'd rather say what type of bug (an error, or enhancement, or improvement, etc.). What names do you use for describing 'bugs'? We found http://www.softwaredevelopment.ca/bugs.shtml which has some pretty good classifications. How do you classify them?

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  • 12.04 server on home network

    - by dustin mantei
    I need advice to help me with a server install, I'm new to ubuntu and linux in general. I have 6 systems in my house, 5 being windows 7 and this laptop that I am typing on is Linux mint 13 Maya. Question is, my wife will not transition to anything. She is stuck in Gates-land. so, can I make a server with ubuntu 12.04 (burnt disc image last night) so that all systems in my home can access and my mother-in-law in another state can also access with a username? That would be awesome and it may convince the war dept (my wife) to change all the systems in my house to ubuntu/linux. Sorry this is so long winded, but all the questions I have seen on this forum don't answer it completely.

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  • How should I setup billing for AdWords when managing a client's campaign in My Client Center? [closed]

    - by Dustin
    I have worked with Google AdWords before and will now be managing an AdWords account for a client. I have a My Client Center account, but I'm wondering what the best practices are for billing. Should I link billing to my own credit card and then have the client pay me (they have to pay me to manage the account anyway), or should I have the client pay Google directly? How is this usually done? If it is the later, what is the best way to have them input their payment info?

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  • SQL View with Data from two tables

    - by Alex
    Hello! I can't seem to crack this - I have two tables (Persons and Companies), and I'm trying to create a view that: 1) shows all persons 2) also returns companies by themselves once, regardless of how many persons are related to it 3) orders by name across both tables To clarify, some sample data: (Table: Companies) Id Name 1 Banana 2 ABC Inc. 3 Microsoft 4 Bigwig (Table: Persons) Id Name RelatedCompanyId 1 Joe Smith 3 2 Justin 3 Paul Rudd 4 4 Anjolie 5 Dustin 4 The output I'm looking for is something like this: Name PersonName CompanyName RelatedCompanyId ABC Inc. NULL ABC Inc. NULL Anjolie Anjolie NULL NULL Banana NULL Banana NULL Bigwig NULL Bigwig NULL Dustin Dustin Bigwig 4 Joe Smith Joe Smith Microsoft 3 Justin Justin NULL NULL Microsoft NULL Microsoft NULL Paul Rudd Paul Rudd Bigwig 4 As you can see, the new "Name" column is ordered across both tables (the company names appear correctly in between the person names), and each company appears exactly once, regardless of how many people are related to it. Can this even be done in SQL?! P.S. I'm trying to create a view so I can use this later for easy data retrieval, fulltext indexing and make the programming side simpler by just querying the view.

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  • ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for November 30, 2012

    - by Bob Rhubart
    Oracle SOA Database Adapter Polling in a Cluster: A Handy Logical Delete Pattern | Carlo Arteaga "Using the SOA database adapter usually becomes easier when the adapter is simply viewed and treated as a gateway between the Oracle SOA composite world and the database world," says Carlo Arteaga. "When viewing the adapter in this light one should come to understand that the adapter is not the ultimate all-in-one solution for database access and database logic needs." OIM 11g : Multi-thread approach for writing custom scheduled job | Saravanan V S Saravanan shares insight and expertise relevant to "designing and developing an OIM schedule job that uses multi threaded approach for updating data in OIM using APIs." When Premature Optimization Isn't | Dustin Marx "Perhaps the most common situations in which I have seen developers make bad decisions under the pretense of 'avoiding premature optimization' is making bad architecture or design choices," says Dustin Marx. Protecting Intranet and Extranet Applications with a Single OAM 11g Deployment | Brian Eidelman Oracle Fusion Middleware A-Team member Brian Eideleman's post, part of the Oracle Access Manager Academy series, explores issues and soluions around setting up a single OAM deployment to protect both intranet and extranet apps. Thought for the Day "Never make a technical decision based upon the politics of the situation, and never make a political decision based upon technical issues." — Geoffrey James Source: SoftwareQuotes.com

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  • ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for 2012-06-21

    - by Bob Rhubart
    Software Architects Need Not Apply | Dustin Marx "I think there is a place for software architecture," says Dustin Marx, "but a portion of our fellow software architects have harmed the reputation of the discipline." For another angle on this subject, check out Out of the Tower, Into the Trenches from the Nov/Dec edition of Oracle Magazine. Oracle Data Integrator 11g - Faster Files | David Allan David Allan illustrates "a big step for regular file processing on the way to super-charging big data files using Hadoop." 2012 Oracle Fusion Middleware Innovation Awards - Win a FREE Pass to Oracle OpenWorld 2012 in SF Share your use of Oracle Fusion Middleware solutions and how they help your organization drive business innovation. You just might win a free pass to Oracle Openworld 2012 in San Francisco. Deadline for submissions in July 17, 2012. WLST Domain creation using dry-run | Michel Schildmeijer What to do "if you want to browse through your domain to check if settings you want to apply satisfy your requirements." Cloud opens up new vistas for service orientation at Netflix | Joe McKendrick "Many see service oriented architecture as laying the groundwork for cloud. But at one well-known company, cloud has instigated the move to SOA." How to avoid the Portlet Skin mismatch | Martin Deh Detailed how-to from WebCenter A-Team blogger Martin Deh. Internationalize WebCenter Portal - Content Presenter | Stefan Krantz Stefan Krantz explains "how to get Content Presenter and its editorials to comply with the current selected locale for the WebCenter Portal session." Oracle Public Cloud Architecture | Tyler Jewell Tyler Jewell discusses the multi-tenancy model and elasticity solution implemented by Oracle Cloud in this QCon presentation. A Distributed Access Control Architecture for Cloud Computing The authors of this InfoQ article discuss a distributed architecture based on the principles from security management and software engineering. Thought for the Day "Let us change our traditional attitude to the construction of programs. Instead of imagining that our main task is to instruct a computer what to to, let us concentrate rather on explaining to human beings what we want a computer to do." — Donald Knuth Source: Quotes for Software Engineers

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  • How to Use Windows’ Advanced Search Features: Everything You Need to Know

    - by Chris Hoffman
    You should never have to hunt down a lost file on modern versions of Windows — just perform a quick search. You don’t even have to wait for a cartoon dog to find your files, like on Windows XP. The Windows search indexer is constantly running in the background to make quick local searches possible. This enables the kind of powerful search features you’d use on Google or Bing — but for your local files. Controlling the Indexer By default, the Windows search indexer watches everything under your user folder — that’s C:\Users\NAME. It reads all these files, creating an index of their names, contents, and other metadata. Whenever they change, it notices and updates its index. The index allows you to quickly find a file based on the data in the index. For example, if you want to find files that contain the word “beluga,” you can perform a search for “beluga” and you’ll get a very quick response as Windows looks up the word in its search index. If Windows didn’t use an index, you’d have to sit and wait as Windows opened every file on your hard drive, looked to see if the file contained the word “beluga,” and moved on. Most people shouldn’t have to modify this indexing behavior. However, if you store your important files in other folders — maybe you store your important data a separate partition or drive, such as at D:\Data — you may want to add these folders to your index. You can also choose which types of files you want to index, force Windows to rebuild the index entirely, pause the indexing process so it won’t use any system resources, or move the index to another location to save space on your system drive. To open the Indexing Options window, tap the Windows key on your keyboard, type “index”, and click the Indexing Options shortcut that appears. Use the Modify button to control the folders that Windows indexes or the Advanced button to control other options. To prevent Windows from indexing entirely, click the Modify button and uncheck all the included locations. You could also disable the search indexer entirely from the Programs and Features window. Searching for Files You can search for files right from your Start menu on Windows 7 or Start screen on Windows 8. Just tap the Windows key and perform a search. If you wanted to find files related to Windows, you could perform a search for “Windows.” Windows would show you files that are named Windows or contain the word Windows. From here, you can just click a file to open it. On Windows 7, files are mixed with other types of search results. On Windows 8 or 8.1, you can choose to search only for files. If you want to perform a search without leaving the desktop in Windows 8.1, press Windows Key + S to open a search sidebar. You can also initiate searches directly from Windows Explorer — that’s File Explorer on Windows 8. Just use the search box at the top-right of the window. Windows will search the location you’ve browsed to. For example, if you’re looking for a file related to Windows and know it’s somewhere in your Documents library, open the Documents library and search for Windows. Using Advanced Search Operators On Windows 7, you’ll notice that you can add “search filters” form the search box, allowing you to search by size, date modified, file type, authors, and other metadata. On Windows 8, these options are available from the Search Tools tab on the ribbon. These filters allow you to narrow your search results. If you’re a geek, you can use Windows’ Advanced Query Syntax to perform advanced searches from anywhere, including the Start menu or Start screen. Want to search for “windows,” but only bring up documents that don’t mention Microsoft? Search for “windows -microsoft”. Want to search for all pictures of penguins on your computer, whether they’re PNGs, JPEGs, or any other type of picture file? Search for “penguin kind:picture”. We’ve looked at Windows’ advanced search operators before, so check out our in-depth guide for more information. The Advanced Query Syntax gives you access to options that aren’t available in the graphical interface. Creating Saved Searches Windows allows you to take searches you’ve made and save them as a file. You can then quickly perform the search later by double-clicking the file. The file functions almost like a virtual folder that contains the files you specify. For example, let’s say you wanted to create a saved search that shows you all the new files created in your indexed folders within the last week. You could perform a search for “datecreated:this week”, then click the Save search button on the toolbar or ribbon. You’d have a new virtual folder you could quickly check to see your recent files. One of the best things about Windows search is that it’s available entirely from the keyboard. Just press the Windows key, start typing the name of the file or program you want to open, and press Enter to quickly open it. Windows 8 made this much more obnoxious with its non-unified search, but unified search is finally returning with Windows 8.1.     

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  • How to Reduce the Size of Your WinSXS Folder on Windows 7 or 8

    - by Chris Hoffman
    The WinSXS folder at C:\Windows\WinSXS is massive and continues to grow the longer you have Windows installed. This folder builds up unnecessary files over time, such as old versions of system components. This folder also contains files for uninstalled, disabled Windows components. Even if you don’t have a Windows component installed, it will be present in your WinSXS folder, taking up space. Why the WinSXS Folder Gets to Big The WinSXS folder contains all Windows system components. In fact, component files elsewhere in Windows are just links to files contained in the WinSXS folder. The WinSXS folder contains every operating system file. When Windows installs updates, it drops the new Windows component in the WinSXS folder and keeps the old component in the WinSXS folder. This means that every Windows Update you install increases the size of your WinSXS folder. This allows you to uninstall operating system updates from the Control Panel, which can be useful in the case of a buggy update — but it’s a feature that’s rarely used. Windows 7 dealt with this by including a feature that allows Windows to clean up old Windows update files after you install a new Windows service pack. The idea was that the system could be cleaned up regularly along with service packs. However, Windows 7 only saw one service pack — Service Pack 1 — released in 2010. Microsoft has no intention of launching another. This means that, for more than three years, Windows update uninstallation files have been building up on Windows 7 systems and couldn’t be easily removed. Clean Up Update Files To fix this problem, Microsoft recently backported a feature from Windows 8 to Windows 7. They did this without much fanfare — it was rolled out in a typical minor operating system update, the kind that don’t generally add new features. To clean up such update files, open the Disk Cleanup wizard (tap the Windows key, type “disk cleanup” into the Start menu, and press Enter). Click the Clean up System Files button, enable the Windows Update Cleanup option and click OK. If you’ve been using your Windows 7 system for a few years, you’ll likely be able to free several gigabytes of space. The next time you reboot after doing this, Windows will take a few minutes to clean up system files before you can log in and use your desktop. If you don’t see this feature in the Disk Cleanup window, you’re likely behind on your updates — install the latest updates from Windows Update. Windows 8 and 8.1 include built-in features that do this automatically. In fact, there’s a StartComponentCleanup scheduled task included with Windows that will automatically run in the background, cleaning up components 30 days after you’ve installed them. This 30-day period gives you time to uninstall an update if it causes problems. If you’d like to manually clean up updates, you can also use the Windows Update Cleanup option in the Disk Usage window, just as you can on Windows 7. (To open it, tap the Windows key, type “disk cleanup” to perform a search, and click the “Free up disk space by removing unnecessary files” shortcut that appears.) Windows 8.1 gives you more options, allowing you to forcibly remove all previous versions of uninstalled components, even ones that haven’t been around for more than 30 days. These commands must be run in an elevated Command Prompt — in other words, start the Command Prompt window as Administrator. For example, the following command will uninstall all previous versions of components without the scheduled task’s 30-day grace period: DISM.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup The following command will remove files needed for uninstallation of service packs. You won’t be able to uninstall any currently installed service packs after running this command: DISM.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /SPSuperseded The following command will remove all old versions of every component. You won’t be able to uninstall any currently installed service packs or updates after this completes: DISM.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase Remove Features on Demand Modern versions of Windows allow you to enable or disable Windows features on demand. You’ll find a list of these features in the Windows Features window you can access from the Control Panel. Even features you don’t have installed — that is, the features you see unchecked in this window — are stored on your hard drive in your WinSXS folder. If you choose to install them, they’ll be made available from your WinSXS folder. This means you won’t have to download anything or provide Windows installation media to install these features. However, these features take up space. While this shouldn’t matter on typical computers, users with extremely low amounts of storage or Windows server administrators who want to slim their Windows installs down to the smallest possible set of system files may want to get these files off their hard drives. For this reason, Windows 8 added a new option that allows you to remove these uninstalled components from the WinSXS folder entirely, freeing up space. If you choose to install the removed components later, Windows will prompt you to download the component files from Microsoft. To do this, open a Command Prompt window as Administrator. Use the following command to see the features available to you: DISM.exe /Online /English /Get-Features /Format:Table You’ll see a table of feature names and their states. To remove a feature from your system, you’d use the following command, replacing NAME with the name of the feature you want to remove. You can get the feature name you need from the table above. DISM.exe /Online /Disable-Feature /featurename:NAME /Remove If you run the /GetFeatures command again, you’ll now see that the feature has a status of “Disabled with Payload Removed” instead of just “Disabled.” That’s how you know it’s not taking up space on your computer’s hard drive. If you’re trying to slim down a Windows system as much as possible, be sure to check out our lists of ways to free up disk space on Windows and reduce the space used by system files.     

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  • What You Need to Know About Windows 8.1

    - by Chris Hoffman
    Windows 8.1 is available to everyone starting today, October 19. The latest version of Windows improves on Windows 8 in every way. It’s a big upgrade, whether you use the desktop or new touch-optimized interface. The latest version of Windows has been dubbed “an apology” by some — it’s definitely more at home on a desktop PC than Windows 8 was. However, it also offers a more fleshed out and mature tablet experience. How to Get Windows 8.1 For Windows 8 users, Windows 8.1 is completely free. It will be available as a download from the Windows Store — that’s the “Store” app in the Modern, tiled interface. Assuming upgrading to the final version will be just like upgrading to the preview version, you’ll likely see a “Get Windows 8.1″ pop-up that will take you to the Windows Store and guide you through the download process. You’ll also be able to download ISO images of Windows 8.1, so can perform a clean install to upgrade. On any new computer, you can just install Windows 8.1 without going through Windows 8. New computers will start to ship with Windows 8.1 and boxed copies of Windows 8 will be replaced by boxed copies of Windows 8.1. If you’re using Windows 7 or a previous version of Windows, the update won’t be free. Getting Windows 8.1 will cost you the same amount as a full copy of Windows 8 — $120 for the standard version. If you’re an average Windows 7 user, you’re likely better off waiting until you buy a new PC with Windows 8.1 included rather than spend this amount of money to upgrade. Improvements for Desktop Users Some have dubbed Windows 8.1 “an apology” from Microsoft, although you certainly won’t see Microsoft referring to it this way. Either way, Steven Sinofsky, who presided over Windows 8′s development, left the company shortly after Windows 8 was released. Coincidentally, Windows 8.1 contains many features that Steven Sinofsky and Microsoft refused to implement. Windows 8.1 offers the following big improvements for desktop users: Boot to Desktop: You can now log in directly to the desktop, skipping the tiled interface entirely. Disable Top-Left and Top-Right Hot Corners: The app switcher and charms bar won’t appear when you move your mouse to the top-left or top-right corners of the screen if you enable this option. No more intrusions into the desktop. The Start Button Returns: Windows 8.1 brings back an always-present Start button on the desktop taskbar, dramatically improving discoverability for new Windows 8 users and providing a bigger mouse target for remote desktops and virtual machines. Crucially, the Start menu isn’t back — clicking this button will open the full-screen Modern interface. Start menu replacements will continue to function on Windows 8.1, offering more traditional Start menus. Show All Apps By Default: Luckily, you can hide the Start screen and its tiles almost entirely. Windows 8.1 can be configured to show a full-screen list of all your installed apps when you click the Start button, with desktop apps prioritized. The only real difference is that the Start menu is now a full-screen interface. Shut Down or Restart From Start Button: You can now right-click the Start button to access Shut down, Restart, and other power options in just as many clicks as you could on Windows 7. Shared Start Screen and Desktop Backgrounds; Windows 8 limited you to just a few Steven Sinofsky-approved background images for your Start screen, but Windows 8.1 allows you to use your desktop background on the Start screen. This can make the transition between the Start screen and desktop much less jarring. The tiles or shortcuts appear to be floating above the desktop rather than off in their own separate universe. Unified Search: Unified search is back, so you can start typing and search your programs, settings, and files all at once — no more awkwardly clicking between different categories when trying to open a Control Panel screen or search for a file. These all add up to a big improvement when using Windows 8.1 on the desktop. Microsoft is being much more flexible — the Start menu is full screen, but Microsoft has relented on so many other things and you’d never have to see a tile if you didn’t want to. For more information, read our guide to optimizing Windows 8.1 for a desktop PC. These are just the improvements specifically for desktop users. Windows 8.1 includes other useful features for everyone, such as deep SkyDrive integration that allows you to store your files in the cloud without installing any additional sync programs. Improvements for Touch Users If you have a Windows 8 or Windows RT tablet or another touch-based device you use the interface formerly known as Metro on, you’ll see many other noticeable improvements. Windows 8′s new interface was half-baked when it launched, but it’s now much more capable and mature. App Updates: Windows 8′s included apps were extremely limited in many cases. For example, Internet Explorer 10 could only display ten tabs at a time and the Mail app was a barren experience devoid of features. In Windows 8.1, some apps — like Xbox Music — have been redesigned from scratch, Internet Explorer allows you to display a tab bar on-screen all the time, while apps like Mail have accumulated quite a few useful features. The Windows Store app has been entirely redesigned and is less awkward to browse. Snap Improvements: Windows 8′s Snap feature was a toy, allowing you to snap one app to a small sidebar at one side of your screen while another app consumed most of your screen. Windows 8.1 allows you to snap two apps side-by-side, seeing each app’s full interface at once. On larger displays, you can even snap three or four apps at once. Windows 8′s ability to use multiple apps at once on a tablet is compelling and unmatched by iPads and Android tablets. You can also snap two of the same apps side-by-side — to view two web pages at once, for example. More Comprehensive PC Settings: Windows 8.1 offers a more comprehensive PC settings app, allowing you to change most system settings in a touch-optimized interface. You shouldn’t have to use the desktop Control Panel on a tablet anymore — or at least not as often. Touch-Optimized File Browsing: Microsoft’s SkyDrive app allows you to browse files on your local PC, finally offering a built-in, touch-optimized way to manage files without using the desktop. Help & Tips: Windows 8.1 includes a Help+Tips app that will help guide new users through its new interface, something Microsoft stubbornly refused to add during development. There’s still no “Modern” version of Microsoft Office apps (aside from OneNote), so you’ll still have to head to use desktop Office apps on tablets. It’s not perfect, but the Modern interface doesn’t feel anywhere near as immature anymore. Read our in-depth look at the ways Microsoft’s Modern interface, formerly known as Metro, is improved in Windows 8.1 for more information. In summary, Windows 8.1 is what Windows 8 should have been. All of these improvements are on top of the many great desktop features, security improvements, and all-around battery life and performance optimizations that appeared in Windows 8. If you’re still using Windows 7 and are happy with it, there’s probably no reason to race out and buy a copy of Windows 8.1 at the rather high price of $120. But, if you’re using Windows 8, it’s a big upgrade no matter what you’re doing. If you buy a new PC and it comes with Windows 8.1, you’re getting a much more flexible and comfortable experience. If you’re holding off on buying a new computer because you don’t want Windows 8, give Windows 8.1 a try — yes, it’s different, but Microsoft has compromised on the desktop while making a lot of improvements to the new interface. You just might find that Windows 8.1 is now a worthwhile upgrade, even if you only want to use the desktop.     

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  • 8 Backup Tools Explained for Windows 7 and 8

    - by Chris Hoffman
    Backups on Windows can be confusing. Whether you’re using Windows 7 or 8, you have quite a few integrated backup tools to think about. Windows 8 made quite a few changes, too. You can also use third-party backup software, whether you want to back up to an external drive or back up your files to online storage. We won’t cover third-party tools here — just the ones built into Windows. Backup and Restore on Windows 7 Windows 7 has its own Backup and Restore feature that lets you create backups manually or on a schedule. You’ll find it under Backup and Restore in the Control Panel. The original version of Windows 8 still contained this tool, and named it Windows 7 File Recovery. This allowed former Windows 7 users to restore files from those old Windows 7 backups or keep using the familiar backup tool for a little while. Windows 7 File Recovery was removed in Windows 8.1. System Restore System Restore on both Windows 7 and 8 functions as a sort of automatic system backup feature. It creates backup copies of important system and program files on a schedule or when you perform certain tasks, such as installing a hardware driver. If system files become corrupted or your computer’s software becomes unstable, you can use System Restore to restore your system and program files from a System Restore point. This isn’t a way to back up your personal files. It’s more of a troubleshooting feature that uses backups to restore your system to its previous working state. Previous Versions on Windows 7 Windows 7′s Previous Versions feature allows you to restore older versions of files — or deleted files. These files can come from backups created with Windows 7′s Backup and Restore feature, but they can also come from System Restore points. When Windows 7 creates a System Restore point, it will sometimes contain your personal files. Previous Versions allows you to extract these personal files from restore points. This only applies to Windows 7. On Windows 8, System Restore won’t create backup copies of your personal files. The Previous Versions feature was removed on Windows 8. File History Windows 8 replaced Windows 7′s backup tools with File History, although this feature isn’t enabled by default. File History is designed to be a simple, easy way to create backups of your data files on an external drive or network location. File History replaces both Windows 7′s Backup and Previous Versions features. Windows System Restore won’t create copies of personal files on Windows 8. This means you can’t actually recover older versions of files until you enable File History yourself — it isn’t enabled by default. System Image Backups Windows also allows you to create system image backups. These are backup images of your entire operating system, including your system files, installed programs, and personal files. This feature was included in both Windows 7 and Windows 8, but it was hidden in the preview versions of Windows 8.1. After many user complaints, it was restored and is still available in the final version of Windows 8.1 — click System Image Backup on the File History Control Panel. Storage Space Mirroring Windows 8′s Storage Spaces feature allows you to set up RAID-like features in software. For example, you can use Storage Space to set up two hard disks of the same size in a mirroring configuration. They’ll appear as a single drive in Windows. When you write to this virtual drive, the files will be saved to both physical drives. If one drive fails, your files will still be available on the other drive. This isn’t a good long-term backup solution, but it is a way of ensuring you won’t lose important files if a single drive fails. Microsoft Account Settings Backup Windows 8 and 8.1 allow you to back up a variety of system settings — including personalization, desktop, and input settings. If you’re signing in with a Microsoft account, OneDrive settings backup is enabled automatically. This feature can be controlled under OneDrive > Sync settings in the PC settings app. This feature only backs up a few settings. It’s really more of a way to sync settings between devices. OneDrive Cloud Storage Microsoft hasn’t been talking much about File History since Windows 8 was released. That’s because they want people to use OneDrive instead. OneDrive — formerly known as SkyDrive — was added to the Windows desktop in Windows 8.1. Save your files here and they’ll be stored online tied to your Microsoft account. You can then sign in on any other computer, smartphone, tablet, or even via the web and access your files. Microsoft wants typical PC users “backing up” their files with OneDrive so they’ll be available on any device. You don’t have to worry about all these features. Just choose a backup strategy to ensure your files are safe if your computer’s hard disk fails you. Whether it’s an integrated backup tool or a third-party backup application, be sure to back up your files.

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  • 8 Mac System Features You Can Access in Recovery Mode

    - by Chris Hoffman
    A Mac’s Recovery Mode is for more than just reinstalling Mac OS X. You’ll find many other useful troubleshooting utilities here — you can use these even if your Mac can’t boot normally. To access Recovery Mode, restart your Mac and press and hold the Command + R keys during the boot-up process. This is one of several hidden startup options on a Mac. Reinstall Mac OS X Most people know Recovery Mode as the place you go to reinstall OS X on your Mac. Recovery Mode will download the OS X installer files from teh Intenret if you don’t have them locally, so they don’t take up space on your disk and you’ll never have to hunt for an opearign system disc. Better yet, it will download up-to-date installation files so you don’t have to spend hours installing operating system updates later. Microsoft could learn a lot from Apple here. Restore From a Time Machine Backup Instead of reinstalling OS X, you can choose to restore your Mac from a time machine backup. This is like restoring a system image on another operating system. You’ll need an external disk containing a backup image created on the current computer to do this. Browse the Web The Get Help Online link opens the Safari web browser to Apple’s documentation site. It’s not limited to Apple’s website, though — you can navigate to any website you like. This feature allows you to access and use a browser on your Mac even if it isn’t booting properly. It’s ideal for looking up troubleshooting information. Manage Your Disks The Disk Utility option opens the same Disk Utility you can access from within Mac OS X. It allows you to partition disks, format them, scan disks for problems, wipe drives, and set up drives in a RAID configuration. If you need to edit partitions from outside your operating system, you can just boot into the recovery environment — you don’t have to download a special partitioning tool and boot into it. Choose the Default Startup Disk Click the Apple menu on the bar at the top of your screen and select Startup Disk to access the Choose Startup Disk tool. Use this tool to choose your computer’s default startup disk and reboot into another operating system. For example, it’s useful if you have Windows installed alongside Mac OS X with Boot Camp. Add or Remove an EFI Firmware Password You can also add a firmware password to your Mac. This works like a BIOS password or UEFI password on a Windows or Linux PC. Click the Utilities menu on the bar at the top of your screen and select Firmware Password Utility to open this tool. Use the tool to turn on a firmware password, which will prevent your computer from starting up from a different hard disk, CD, DVD, or USB drive without the password you provide. This prevents people form booting up your Mac with an unauthorized operating system. If you’ve already enabled a firmware password, you can remove it from here. Use Network Tools to Troubleshoot Your Connection Select Utilities > Network Utility to open a network diagnostic tool. This utility provides a graphical way to view your network connection information. You can also use the netstat, ping, lookup, traceroute, whois, finger, and port scan utilities from here. These can be helpful to troubleshoot Internet connection problems. For example, the ping command can demonstrate whether you can communicate with a remote host and show you if you’re experiencing packet loss, while the traceroute command can show you where a connection is failing if you can’t connect to a remote server. Open a Terminal If you’d like to get your hands dirty, you can select Utilities > Terminal to open a terminal from here. This terminal allows you to do more advanced troubleshooting. Mac OS X uses the bash shell, just as typical Linux distributions do. Most people will just need to use the Reinstall Mac OS X option here, but there are many other tools you can benefit from. If the Recovery Mode files on your Mac are damaged or unavailable, your Mac will automatically download them from Apple so you can use the full recovery environment.

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  • How To Run Chrome OS in VirtualBox and Try Out Chrome OS Before Buying a Chromebook

    - by Chris Hoffman
    With Google’s new Chromebooks out at just $249, many people who once wrote them off as too expensive for their limited functionality are giving them a second look. But will you really find Chrome OS useful? You can easily run Chrome OS in a VirtualBox virtual machine, although you’ll need to tweak a few settings before it will run properly. Once you have, you can run Chrome OS in a window on your computer. How To Play DVDs on Windows 8 6 Start Menu Replacements for Windows 8 What Is the Purpose of the “Do Not Cover This Hole” Hole on Hard Drives?

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  • How to Easily Add Custom Right-Click Options to Ubuntu’s File Manager

    - by Chris Hoffman
    Use Nautilus-Actions to easily and graphically create custom context menu options for Ubuntu’s Nautilus file manager. If you don’t want to create your own, you can install Nautilus-Actions-Extra to get a package of particularly useful user-created tools. Nautilus-Actions is simple to use – much simpler than editing the Windows registry to add Windows Explorer context menu options. All you really have to do is name your option and specify a command or script to run. HTG Explains: What Is Windows RT and What Does It Mean To Me? HTG Explains: How Windows 8′s Secure Boot Feature Works & What It Means for Linux Hack Your Kindle for Easy Font Customization

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  • How To Make NVIDIA’s Optimus Work on Linux

    - by Chris Hoffman
    Many new laptops come with NVIDIA’s Optimus technology – the laptop includes both a discrete NVIDIA GPU for gaming power and an onboard Intel GPU for power savings. The notebook switches between the two when necessary. However, this isn’t yet well-supported on Linux. Linus Torvalds had some choice words for NVIDIA regarding Optimus not working on Linux, and NVIDIA is now currently working on official support. However, if you have a laptop with Optimus support, you don’t have to wait for NVIDIA — you can use the Bumblebee project’s solution to enable Optimus on Linux today. Image Credit: Jemimus on Flickr How To Create a Customized Windows 7 Installation Disc With Integrated Updates How to Get Pro Features in Windows Home Versions with Third Party Tools HTG Explains: Is ReadyBoost Worth Using?

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  • 8 Things You Can Do In Android’s Developer Options

    - by Chris Hoffman
    The Developer Options menu in Android is a hidden menu with a variety of advanced options. These options are intended for developers, but many of them will be interesting to geeks. You’ll have to perform a secret handshake to enable the Developer Options menu in the Settings screen, as it’s hidden from Android users by default. Follow the simple steps to quickly enable Developer Options. Enable USB Debugging “USB debugging” sounds like an option only an Android developer would need, but it’s probably the most widely used hidden option in Android. USB debugging allows applications on your computer to interface with your Android phone over the USB connection. This is required for a variety of advanced tricks, including rooting an Android phone, unlocking it, installing a custom ROM, or even using a desktop program that captures screenshots of your Android device’s screen. You can also use ADB commands to push and pull files between your device and your computer or create and restore complete local backups of your Android device without rooting. USB debugging can be a security concern, as it gives computers you plug your device into access to your phone. You could plug your device into a malicious USB charging port, which would try to compromise you. That’s why Android forces you to agree to a prompt every time you plug your device into a new computer with USB debugging enabled. Set a Desktop Backup Password If you use the above ADB trick to create local backups of your Android device over USB, you can protect them with a password with the Set a desktop backup password option here. This password encrypts your backups to secure them, so you won’t be able to access them if you forget the password. Disable or Speed Up Animations When you move between apps and screens in Android, you’re spending some of that time looking at animations and waiting for them to go away. You can disable these animations entirely by changing the Window animation scale, Transition animation scale, and Animator duration scale options here. If you like animations but just wish they were faster, you can speed them up. On a fast phone or tablet, this can make switching between apps nearly instant. If you thought your Android phone was speedy before, just try disabling animations and you’ll be surprised how much faster it can seem. Force-Enable FXAA For OpenGL Games If you have a high-end phone or tablet with great graphics performance and you play 3D games on it, there’s a way to make those games look even better. Just go to the Developer Options screen and enable the Force 4x MSAA option. This will force Android to use 4x multisample anti-aliasing in OpenGL ES 2.0 games and other apps. This requires more graphics power and will probably drain your battery a bit faster, but it will improve image quality in some games. This is a bit like force-enabling antialiasing using the NVIDIA Control Panel on a Windows gaming PC. See How Bad Task Killers Are We’ve written before about how task killers are worse than useless on Android. If you use a task killer, you’re just slowing down your system by throwing out cached data and forcing Android to load apps from system storage whenever you open them again. Don’t believe us? Enable the Don’t keep activities option on the Developer options screen and Android will force-close every app you use as soon as you exit it. Enable this app and use your phone normally for a few minutes — you’ll see just how harmful throwing out all that cached data is and how much it will slow down your phone. Don’t actually use this option unless you want to see how bad it is! It will make your phone perform much more slowly — there’s a reason Google has hidden these options away from average users who might accidentally change them. Fake Your GPS Location The Allow mock locations option allows you to set fake GPS locations, tricking Android into thinking you’re at a location where you actually aren’t. Use this option along with an app like Fake GPS location and you can trick your Android device and the apps running on it into thinking you’re at locations where you actually aren’t. How would this be useful? Well, you could fake a GPS check-in at a location without actually going there or confuse your friends in a location-tracking app by seemingly teleporting around the world. Stay Awake While Charging You can use Android’s Daydream Mode to display certain apps while charging your device. If you want to force Android to display a standard Android app that hasn’t been designed for Daydream Mode, you can enable the Stay awake option here. Android will keep your device’s screen on while charging and won’t turn it off. It’s like Daydream Mode, but can support any app and allows users to interact with them. Show Always-On-Top CPU Usage You can view CPU usage data by toggling the Show CPU usage option to On. This information will appear on top of whatever app you’re using. If you’re a Linux user, the three numbers on top probably look familiar — they represent the system load average. From left to right, the numbers represent your system load over the last one, five, and fifteen minutes. This isn’t the kind of thing you’d want enabled most of the time, but it can save you from having to install third-party floating CPU apps if you want to see CPU usage information for some reason. Most of the other options here will only be useful to developers debugging their Android apps. You shouldn’t start changing options you don’t understand. If you want to undo any of these changes, you can quickly erase all your custom options by sliding the switch at the top of the screen to Off.     

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  • How to Disable Ubuntu’s Guest Session Account

    - by Chris Hoffman
    Ubuntu and Linux Mint come with a “Guest Session” account, which anyone can log into from the login screen – no password required. If you’d rather restrict access to your computer, you can disable the guest account. This guest account is locked down and changes to it don’t persist between sessions – everyone that logs in gets a fresh desktop. Still, you may want to disable it to prevent other people from using your computer. Download the Official How-To Geek Trivia App for Windows 8 How to Banish Duplicate Photos with VisiPic How to Make Your Laptop Choose a Wired Connection Instead of Wireless

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